Coach Tash Bradley

If you participated in this yearâ€™s Reebok CrossFit Games Open, you may have had a moment during the 5 weeks where you felt disappointed with your performance. This might have been for a variety of reasons â€“ maybe your ranking wasnâ€™t as high as you thought it would be, or a movement came up that you couldnâ€™t do, or your head wasnâ€™t in the right space for one of the workouts and you ended up with a score that perhaps isnâ€™t a true reflection of your fitness.

These moments suck big time. You feel frustrated, upset, embarrassed, even heartbroken. You may start to question everything that youâ€™ve put into your training and your goals. Thoughts such as â€˜why am I even doing this?â€™, Â â€˜whatâ€™s the point?â€™ or â€˜Iâ€™m not good enoughâ€™ can start to circle and get you feeling pretty down.

Itâ€™s important in times like this to let yourself feel these emotions and thoughts. Itâ€™s ok to question yourself, and itâ€™s healthy to talk to people to get it off your chest â€“ remembering that blaming other people is not so healthy. Allowing yourself to recognise that a situation has affected you is an important step in being able to turn it into an opportunity. Once this happens, you can change your mindset.

A powerful question to ask yourself amongst all this is, why do you CrossFit?

Think back to when you did your On RampÂ when there was that one movement that for the life of you thought youâ€™d never understand – but it was new and exciting, and you kept trying because you wanted to figure it out. For no other reason than for the joy of it and for the challenge of mastering a new skill.

You are still that person, despite your recent disappointment. Draw on them, and let them remind you of why you love CrossFit.
â€¢ It lets you test your limits.
â€¢ It lets you see how far you can push yourself.
â€¢ It gives you an opportunity to discover your potential, and achieve things you never thought possible.
Reflect on this recent test, and determine the reason for your disappointment. This forms the basis of your new goals. This is the new challenge that keep you fighting and hungry to be the best version of yourself possible. Let yourself get excited about this new challenge â€“ who knows what youâ€™ll be capable of when you master it! And who knows what new challenges lie ahead of this?

CrossFit is a journey, and itâ€™s not an easy one! There are highâ€™s and lowâ€™s â€“ and if youâ€™ve recently experienced a low, realise itâ€™s an opportunity to set some new targets and unleash potential you perhaps didnâ€™t know was there. Feel the disappointment, then accept the new challenge and chase it down to become the best possible athlete you can be.

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